


Flirtations

by bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid



Series: The World Needs More Mac and Riley [4]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Mac is oblivious, Riley and Mac get a little tipsy, Riley teaches mac what it looks like when girls flirt, like super oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 17:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13253463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid/pseuds/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid
Summary: Requested by Elle:"I've tried always had a Mac and Riley moment in my head where they’re drunk and Riley tells Mac that some of the women in Phoenix are into him but I could never get it out of my head into writing if you know what I mean. I'd love if you could write it. Thank you!"orMac is super oblivious to the flirtations of women at the Phoenix Foundation and Riley sees it as her personal mission to educate him.





	Flirtations

Mac felt a pleasant fuzziness in his head as he took another sip of his beer. The rest of the crew had headed off to get some sleep. Everyone except Riley, who was still next to him, drinking a beer of her own.

“So, how’s Hawaii guy?” Mac asked, unable to remember his name at the current moment. He realized that he hadn’t heard anything about the guy for a while.

“Kalei? He’s good. We’re just friends, it’s a little hard to keep a relationship going when neither of you ever want to leave the place you are living.” Riley said, not sounding too broken up about it.

“That does make things difficult. You don’t ever want to leave LA?” Mac asked with surprise. Riley was a free spirit and didn’t seem like someone who would want to stay in one place for long.

“Maybe I shouldn't say ever...But right now I am perfectly happy where I am.” Riley sent him a smile and took a sip of her drink. “What about you? Have you gotten better at keeping your dates under wrap or have you just not been on any.”

“Haven’t been on any” Mac admitted, the alcohol running through his system causing him to be honest about a subject that he normally refused to talk about.

“Why not?” Riley seemed a little too excited that he was talking about his love life.

“Cause…” Mac let out a sigh, trying to figure out how to explain it. “Cause it’s hard with our life. After seeing how hard Bozer took me lying to him...I can’t do that to someone else I care about.” Mac thought about his few feeble attempts at dating since Nikki. He had broken them all off before they could get too serious because he couldn’t stand having to lie to them about such an important part of his life. That was no way to start a relationship.

“Mac!” Riley yelled a little too loudly

“Shh, Boze is trying to sleep.” Mac reminded her knowing that their friend had an early shift the next day.

“Oh, sorry, but are you really telling me right now that you are just giving up on dating?”

“No, well maybe, I don’t know.” Even with lips loosened by the beer, he had reached his limit. “Can we talk about something else?”

“No!”

“Shhh”

“Sorry, sorry, okay, but what about dating someone who knows you are a spy? Then you wouldn’t have to lie.” Riley offered, but Mac just let out a wry chuckle.

“Who? Like you or Cage? Somehow I don’t see that happening. How about you try to solve Bozer’s love life problems. Poor guy met the girl of his dreams only to have her ripped away.” Mac tried again to change the subject.

“What about the dozen other Phoenix agents that are already half in love with you?” Riley said. Mac froze with his beer halfway to his lips and turned to look at her.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about how the lab techies and agents and everyone else thinks you hang the moon.”

“You’re drunk.” Mac scoffed

“No, well yes a little, but that doesn’t make what I’m saying untrue.” Riley was looking at him with an intensity that made him realize that she wasn’t joking.

“You really think people at the agency are into me?” Mac said incredulously, thinking back to his interactions with his coworkers. They had all been pleasant, normal conversations between peers. Mac didn’t see why Riley thought they were anything more.

“Oh, I know so. God, I shouldn’t tell you this, but when I first started working here, a few women came up to me and started talking about how I was lucky to be working with you so closely because they were pretty sure you didn’t know they existed.”

“I know everyone who works in that building," Mac said, fully offended. He made a conscious effort to know everyone’s name and what they did for the Phoenix Foundation. It was partly for security reasons and partly because it was the decent thing to do.

“How is someone so smart so dumb?” Riley asked, her eyes full of laughter

“Riley, what the heck are you talking about?” Mac had lost control of this conversation and was having difficulty catching up with his slowed-down brain.

“Maacc,” Riley drew out his name to show her annoyance. “You really haven’t noticed the women who go out of their way to talk to you every chance they get?”

“That’s just them being nice.” Mac said, “You are grasping at straws Riley.”

“They have told me themselves you dummy,” Riley said and Mac let out a startled laugh at being called dumb. “You know Jill?”

“Of course, I’m not Jack.”

“Well, she had the biggest crush on you for the longest time. I used to let her help you with tech stuff instead of me just so she could talk to you.”

“Jill...likes me?” Mac said. Their conversations had always been pleasant, but he had never picked up on the fact that she was flirting.

“Not anymore you moron.”

“Hey!” Mac protested the name calling

“She finally realized that you didn’t feel the same and moved on.”

“I didn’t...not feel the same.” Mac flinched at the double negative but couldn’t think of a better way of putting it.

“Oh, my god...I need another beer before I can continue this conversation.” Riley stood up and fixed Mac with a serious look. “When I get back I am going to attempt to teach your oblivious butt how to tell when a girl is flirting.” Mac thought about what she had said as she walked away. He thought about the interactions he had with his coworkers, but for the life of him, he couldn’t reach the same conclusion as Riley. Riley may need another beer for this conversation, but Mac was wishing he had drunk less. He could really use the full capacity of his brain right now.

“So, who exactly flirts with me?” Mac asked when Riley returned. She handed him a beer which he accepted but didn’t drink.

“Oh, no way am I making this that easy for you,” Riley said with a bright smile that made Mac groan. Riley had gotten over her shock at his cluelessness and now appeared to be enjoying herself a little too much.

“Riles…” 

“Let’s just say it’s a lot and leave it at that. I want to see if you will be able to pick up if someone’s flirting with you after my lesson. You can’t do that if I tell you who to be on the lookout for.”

“Fine, let’s just get on with it then.” Mac waved his hand for Riley to start and her smile got bigger.

“Okay, so some ways to tell if a girl is flirting are: If she plays with her hair, if she touches you on the arm a lot, if she laughs at all of your jokes, even the not so funny ones, if she-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s not fair, all of my jokes are funny.” Mac interrupted. Riley rolled her eyes and kept listing off ways that girls flirt. After a few moments, Mac found himself wishing that he had taken notes, as he had already forgotten half of the things Riley had said.

“...and that’s how you know.” Riley finished and gave Mac a self-satisfied look.

“Wow” Mac must’ve looked slightly shell shock because Riley gave him a smile and patted his arm.

“Look, just next time you are getting coffee and an agent starts chatting you up, see if you can spot any of those things. If you can, there is a good chance she is trying to flirt with you, not just making small talk” Riley encouraged.

“I’ll try,” Mac said, mostly to appease her. There was a part of him that still doubted the women at the Phoenix Foundation were flirting with him, but he knew that even if he didn’t try, he would now be paying more attention to the things Riley had pointed out. 

“Good, now drink your beer and I’ll tell you about the time in middle school when I tried to flirt with a guy for weeks and he never noticed,” Riley said and Mac looked at her in surprise. Catching his glance, she shrugged, “You aren’t the only one who is a little oblivious.”

“Fair enough,” Mac said and picked up his beer as Riley started talking about her 7th-grade lab partner who didn’t notice her hair twirling once.


End file.
